The Hindu : New Delhi News : Missing engineer found at airport

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 18, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Missing engineer found at airport

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 17. An engineer, who reportedly went missing from the domestic terminal of Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Wednesday afternoon, was found sitting in the security hold area of the airport premises later in the evening. He was suffering from schizophrenia and had not boarded the plane after collecting his boarding pass.

According to the police, Ashish Patnigiri, who had been in the Capital for the past one month in connection with his job with a firm, had booked a ticket for Mumbai on Air Deccan (flight No. DN-608) scheduled to take-off at 9-10 a.m. on Wednesday. Ashish had collected his boarding pass from the Air Deccan flight counter, but the Air Deccan staff later realised he had not boarded the flight. His luggage was off-loaded and his name was taken off the passenger list.

Around 3 p.m., an official from the private airline who failed to locate Ashish reported to the police that he had gone missing. Around the same time, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport), Uday Kant Chowdhury, got a call from Ajay Patnigiri, Deputy Commissioner in the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation, saying that Ashish, his younger brother, had gone missing from the airport.

The police flashed messages to various hospitals and also alerted the nearby police stations.

Meanwhile, Mr. Chowdhury contacted Mr. Patnigiri once again. The Mumbai officer told Mr. Chowdhury that his brother was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was not getting his medicines in the Capital for the past fortnight as he did not have the prescription.

Mr. Chowdhury then contacted Ashish's doctor who told him that due to the illness Ashish was probably scared of undergoing the security check after he collected the boarding pass.

The police then formed teams to comb the terminal. Around 6 p.m., they found Ashish sitting on a sofa in the security hold area. The police informed his elder brother, who immediately took the next available flight and reached the Capital by 9 p.m.

In the meantime, Mr. Chowdhury contacted the doctor again to get the prescription and medicines were arranged for Ashish.

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